A. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a time clock, and more particularly, the embodiments of the present invention relate to a focused illuminated guide for clearly identifying where a user should position a time card in a time clock to assure that the time clock provides a properly positioned printing on the time card.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Time clocks are used by businesses to keep track of time worked by hourly employees. To this end, time clocks may be located at entrances or exits of a business. Also, employees may be assigned a time card at the beginning of each week to indicate thereon the time worked by the employee via the time clock.
The time card may have a plurality of time slots for the days of the week, as well as for various times during the day, e.g., start work, start and end of lunch time, and end work. The time clock stamps start and end times of the time worked on respective time slots of the time card.
The time card for each employee may be placed at a central location, adjacent to the time clock. Each employee, when first coming to work at the beginning of the day, may insert the employee's time card into the time clock and depress a print button to actuate a printing mechanism of the time clock to stamp a current time on the time card, thereby indicating the time at which the employee started work.
In particular, when the employee inserts the time card into the time clock, the employee aligns the time slot of the time card to the printing mechanism of the time clock by viewing both the printing mechanism and the time slot of the time card through a print window. The print window, however, may not provide optimal viewing of the time slot of the time card because the time clock cover or internal clock's components shades or blocks any ambient light from the printing mechanism and the time slot of the time card. The only light falling on the printing mechanism and the time slot of the time card is ambient light through the print window or some other general lighting source installed inside of the printer chamber. As a result, the employee may not be able to see whether the appropriate time slot of the time card is aligned to the printing mechanism, and the time card may have a plurality of stamped times that are misaligned to the appropriate time slots of the time card. Hence, an accountant who calculates the time worked by the employee may have difficulty reading the plurality of stamped times on the time card.
Additionally, when the employee looks through the print window, it is sometimes unclear to the employee where the time slot of the time card should be aligned because the employee only sees a plurality of mechanical parts. As such, the employee may misalign the time slot of the time card because the employee does not know what part to align the time slot of the time card with.
Thus, there exists a need for a focused illuminated guide for clearly identifying where a user should position a time card in a time clock to assure that the time clock provides a properly positioned printing on the time card.
Numerous innovations for time clocks and related devices have been provided in the prior art, which will be described below in chronological order to show advancement in the art, and which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, nevertheless, they differ from the embodiments of the present invention in that they do not teach a focused illuminated guide for clearly identifying where a user should position a time card in a time clock to assure that the time clock provides a properly positioned printing on the time card.
(1) U.S. Pat. No. 2,407,020 to Kraus.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,407,020—issued to Kraus on Sep. 3, 1946 in U.S. class 234 and subclass 43—teaches a time-recording device having a card-receiving slot and an indicator in fixed relation to the recording mechanism, a projection on the indicator, and a guide adapted for being detachably mounted on a card for slidably engaging the projection to position the card endwise when the card is inserted sidewise into the slot.
(2) U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,666 to Kato et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,666—issued to Kato et al. on Jul. 19, 1983 in U.S. class 346 and subclass 82—teaches a time recorder including a read-out apparatus for reading out a personal code shown on a time card inserted therein, a print line number storage apparatus provided correspondingly to each personal code for storing data expressing a print line number on the time card, a positioning control apparatus for reading out the data from the print line number storage apparatus corresponding to a personal code previously read out at the time of insertion of the time card and for positioning a print line of the time card in conformity with the data, and a data update apparatus for updating data in the print line number storage apparatus in accordance with predetermined criteria.
(3) U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,315 to Kato et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,315—issued to Kato et al. on Dec. 27, 1983 in U.S. class 235 and subclass 377—teaches a working hour system corresponding to each of a number of different kinds of plural work classes that is stored in the form of predetermined format in a storage section of a time recorder. A time card has a work class code expressing the work class of the person who owns the card. When the time card is inserted into the time recorder, the time recorder first reads out the work class code recorded on the time card, determines the work data related to the time of acceptance of the time card by an arithmetic operation based on the working hour system in a storage section corresponding to the work class code, and prints the results of the arithmetic operation on the time card.
(4) U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,388 to Yamanaka.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,388—issued to Yamanaka on May 16, 1989 in U.S. class 346 and subclass 95—teaches an elapsed time recorder including an entrance recorder installed at the entrance for printing the entry time on a time card and simultaneously coding the entry time and printing the coded entry time on the time card, and an exit recorder installed at the exit for printing the exit time on the time card carried to the exit and simultaneously reading the coded entry time recorded on the time card, computing the elapsed time or the difference between the entry time and the exit time, and printing the time difference on the time card.
(5) U.S. Pat. No. 7,265,767 to Forest et al.
Referring now to the figures, in which like numerals indicate like parts, and particularly to FIG. 1, which is a diagrammatic perspective view of a prior art time clock taught by U.S. Pat. No. 7,265,767 to Forest et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,265,767—issued to Forest et al. on Sep. 4, 2007 in U.S. class 346 and subclass 82—teaches a ribbon shield 20 for a time clock 22 that is placed within a printing chamber 24 of the time clock 22 along with a printing mechanism 26. The ribbon shield 20 of the time clock 22 also incorporates a light source 28, e.g., electroluminescent lamp, to illuminate the printing chamber 24 of the time clock 22 and an inserted time card 30 to aid an employee in aligning a time slot 32 of the time card 30 to a target area 34 of the printing mechanism 26 of the printing chamber 24 of the time clock 22.
(6) United States Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0209100 to Forest et al.
United States Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0209100—published to Forest et al. on Sep. 21, 2006 in U.S. class 347 and subclass 2—teaches a printer cartridge that defines an internal cavity. The cartridge has a body, a cover defining the internal cavity, and a light source that is disposed inside of the internal cavity of the cartridge. The light source shines light through a notch formed in the body to illuminate a time card inserted into a time card time slot of a time clock. The light source also shines light through an arrow shaped aperture to direct an employee that the appropriate time slot of the time card should be aligned under the arrow so that the printing mechanism prints the current time to the aligned time slot.
(7) United States Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0209158 to Forest et al.
United States Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0209158—published to Forest et al. on Sep. 21, 2006 in U.S. class 347 and subclass 118—teaches a ribbon shield for a time clock, which is placed within a printing chamber along with a printing mechanism. The ribbon shield also incorporates a light source, e.g., electroluminescent lamp, to illuminate the printing chamber and an inserted time card to aid an employee in aligning a time slot of the time card to a target area of the printing mechanism.
It is apparent that numerous innovations for time clocks and related devices have been provided in the prior art, which are adapted to be used. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, nevertheless, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the embodiments of the present invention as heretofore described, namely, a focused illuminated guide for clearly identifying where a user should position a time card in a time clock to assure that the time clock provides a properly positioned printing on the time card.